Twenty Years After Dallas
William Attwood
It will be twenty years on November 22nd since John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas. And yet to most Americans over the age of 30 it seems like only yesterday, so vivid is our recollection of that traumatic Friday afternoon. Ask any of us where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news of the shooting and you'll get a detailed response. It's a recollection that will forever be stored in our memory banks for instant retrieval.
Why should this be? Why did this one death have such a profound effect on so many people who had not even met the man? There may be some clues in my own experience.
I was lunching with some UN ambassadors at the New York City home of Marietta Tree, like me a member of the U. S. Delegation to the General Assembly. (I can still remember where I was sitting at the table). Suddenly her young daughter Penelope appeared in the doorway and breathlessly announced, "The president's been shot—I just heard it on the radio."
